Ather

Fury of the beast

10

MAY/16

After besting Silas and his cronies, the party joined two Callugh Brahn warriors and six Lowry men at arms in escorting the prisoners for trial in Cliffwatch and also in hunting a shapeshifter menace some day’s ride to the southwest. En route, the caravan is attacked by the beast, appearing as a massive, lanky bear with yellow eyes, which slaughters one of the men at arms and gravely injures Ulrich and Idris. As the bear was driven off, the Wanderer chased after it, only to discover the bear was in fact a man, as if shifted back into human form, wished its pursuer good hunting, and vanished into the trees.

Due to the extent of Idris and Ulrich’s injuries, Svald, the senior Callugh Brahn, sent Vincent and the Wanderer to take their companions back to Fane’s Field. Svald also entrusts to the Wanderer a missive from Ulrich’s father, Lord Hoster, stating that after a peace agreement had been reached been the Akira and the Arulan warriors, an Akira raid kidnapped Ulrich’s half-brother, Ebron. The party headed south towards Highlake, passing through Lowry on their way.

As they traveled south, they were tailed by the shapeshifter. After Idris awoke, and realized that he had been infected with lycanthropy, he stayed behind to face the bear, who explained to him what was happening, and greeted him as a hunting brother before departing from whence he came. Idris shifted, spending the night in bear form before making his way to Lowry where the rest of the party had settled in for the night. While in town, both Ulrich and the Wanderer were approached by a blond knight, discreetly inquiring if they were fed up with the rule of Cliffwatch Hold, and if they wished to fight back, to which both declined. The knight insinuated that it was not the Akira who broke the truce, but Cliffwatch soldiers who attacked an Akira encampment, provoking the nomads to retaliate.

Departing the following morning, the group encountered a felled tree across the road, and were ambushed by Akira warriors. The party fought back hard, and frightened most of the warriors away, keeping one prisoner to learn why the nomads were so deep into Highlake territory.